Four proteins of a peripheral and central nervous system have been targeted for study--the myelin basic protein, P2, P0 and proteolipid. The first phase of the molecular level studies is the cloning of the genes coding for these proteins. To this end, we have obtained the necessary human perinatal brain tissue, prepared cDNA libraries from brain mRNA's, and we are presently searching among the five hundred library clones in order to identify those which contain the genes for myelin basic protein. We have tentatively identified several such clones and are characterizing them extensively to establish whether they contain the desired genes.